How council talks to ratepayers eyed

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Nelson City council's communication manager Angela Ricker's final day in the job is today and the council is looking for a replacement.

Human resources manager Stephen Gully said along with replacing Ricker the council was still recruiting a new communications adviser.

He said the remuneration for the manager role was not listed in the advertisement as it would be negotiated with the successful applicant.

The Nelson council's communications team includes a manager, two fulltime advisers, one .75 adviser, and one fulltime web content developer while Tasman District Council has one fulltime communications adviser, Chris Choat, and one fulltime online adviser responsible for web development, the intranet and social media.

Nelson mayor Rachel Reese said she expected changes in the way the council communicated in the coming months as a report on communications was expected at the council table soon.

"I think you look at all of your operations and how you are delivering what it is you want to deliver and it is important that we undertake all of our functions as council in a cost-effective manner," she said.

"I know there are several people in the community who have written to me requesting that we cease the Live Nelson publication. I think it's always timely to stop and have a review," she said.

She said there were more effective ways to communicate than through a fortnightly hard copy newsletter.

"We need to start thinking about whether we use technology to communicate better with our residents and ratepayers. I think we need to look at opportunities through existing publications and whether that is a more cost effective way for us to communicate," she said.

Reese said there had already been some changes with the councillors' stall at the market on the first Saturday of every month, meetings taking place in the community, and greater access for the media to council staff with technical knowledge.